As buybacks fatten up, enhanced payouts thin out

Of the approximately 7,000 publicly owned companies in Standard & Poor's survey of third-quarter payout actions, 356 hiked their dividends -- 5.6% fewer than the 377 that had done so a year earlier. That was the fifth consecutive year-over-year decline. In 2007's first nine months, the number of dividend boosts fell 4.1%, to 1,425,...